Naumovski et al. (1985, Mol. Cell Biol. 5:17-26; Reynolds et al. (1985 Nucleic Acid Res 13:2357-2372) and Weber et al. (1990 EMBO J. 9:1437-1447) disclose members of the RAD3/ERCC2 gene family of DNA helicases.
It is known that several chemotherapeutic agents inhibit helicases, including actinomycin Cl, daunorubicin and nogalamycin (Tuteja, et al., 1997, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 236(3):636-640), and a prostate cancer drug, CI-958 (Lun, et al., 1998, Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 42(6):447-453). In addition, some topoisomerases have been shown to have anti-cancer activity.
Despite the identification of the aforementioned helicase-encoding genes and chemotherapeutic agents, it would be advantageous to identify additional genes which reside within chromosomal regions associated with a disease state such as cancer as well as a gene which encodes a type of protein which may be associated with that disease. The present invention addresses and meets this need by disclosing a DNA molecule encoding a DNA helicase with a chromosomal location suggestive of association with cancer.